Why the New Normal Needs Automation in Commercial Cleaning

Whether conducting routine business or dealing with the challenges of a pandemic, facility managers have a responsibility for ensuring a healthy indoor environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need for health-based cleaning of high-contact touch points.

Automation Improves the Lives of Cleaning Professionals

Automation in the cleaning industry is not to replace people but to make their work function better and work more efficient helping them to increase productivity and reduce repetitive and injury inducing tasks. In the robotics industry, automation has reasonably shown to improve workers lives by generating new job opportunities, higher wages, new skills and makes work safer. The more automation technology available to us, the cleaners get to focus on more specific tasks that require human intervention. Autonomous vacuum sweepers allow manual vacuuming to be skipped, saving businesses time and money.

Automation Can Help Improve Environments

People now understand that preventative measures should be taken to minimize risks for pandemic threats, and other kind of viral contagion. In the past we have seen how a simple strain of flu can immobilize a large number of people, in favorable conditions to spread. COVID-19 has been the catalyst to highlight the importance of proper hygienic cleaning protocols and ways to mitigate the spread of disease, including social distancing. In taking all of this into consideration, we believe the market for commercial cleaning automation is poised to grow exponentially in the coming years.

While that assumption still holds true, people have come to the startling realization that increasing standards of cleaning and maximizing precautions against viruses now includes everyone’s participation in upholding external environmental health parameters. Maintaining optimal health means, we all must take the necessary precautionary steps. It also means the environment we share must uphold a better standard of clean. Automated cleaning allows for both of the above steps to happen simultaneously, but to implement this it should begin at the earliest in order to minimize risk in spaces that are currently occupied and better prepare spaces that are open.

How Automation Can Help the Cleaning Industry

ICE Cobotics, in partnership with SoftBank Robotics, is leading the cobotic evolution, an innovative movement in smarter cleaning. The name means the collaboration between humans and robots, leveraging the strengths of both. This means functioning together and using smart technology to build cleaner, more hygienic environments and better working experiences for everyone.

Whiz stands for the new movement in smart technology for the commercial cleaning industry. The first of its kind, Whiz is an innovative product for a future-facing cleaning industry and shares the workload by taking on the repetitive task of vacuuming. Read below how automation can positively impact commercial cleaning -

1. Automation Helps with Efficiency

By working alongside Whiz, cleaning teams will waste less time and energy, freeing them up to focus on more skilled and higher value tasks. Whiz cleans 98% of the available floor space compared to 52% by a manual vacuum cleaner*.

2. Automation Can Improve Jobs

Automation in cleaning may raise concerns about employee retention. Concerns like will employees think their jobs are at stake and, begin looking for employment somewhere else.

With cobots like Whiz your staff will play a crucial role in training the route to Whiz and monitoring its progress, all through a simple set-up experience and operation system. Whiz works towards delivering smarter cleaning, high standard performance, increased productivity, and improved health for everyone in the building.

3. Automation Provides Measurable and Consistent Results

Whiz provides data-driven, measurable results which are easy to track and manage.

Whiz significantly outperforms manual vacuum cleaners. Conventional vacuum cleaners use more time re-vacuuming 46% of the available floorspace, leading to time and energy wastage. Whiz saves up to 2 hours 22 minutes of vacuuming time, providing cleaners with sufficient time for more important tasks as surface disinfection*.

4. Automation Can Complement and Even Create Job Opportunities

Whiz cobots lessens the impact of gaps in the workforce. Working alongside cleaners, the cobot can vacuum clean 100% of the available space more efficiently and consistently all the time*.

5. Automation Can Support and Empower Cleaning Staff

Whiz cobots effectively aims to support the cleaning staff, sharing the load by taking over heavy vacuuming tasks, letting them focus on surface disinfection and tasks that require more human intervention. This way they enjoy their jobs more leading to less absenteeism helping companies with less turnover achieve higher standards of return on investment.

6. Automation Work with a Subscription Service

Whiz offers a cost-effective and service-driven subscription model with all maintenance costs covered for your business giving you more time to focus on other crucial tasks while our cobot takes care of complete floor surface cleaning. Often, these items go overlooked and are a large added expense throughout the year.

Conclusion

Although we’ve started experiencing automation in the commercial cleaning industry, it will likely take a few years for the world to witness a wide-scale implementation of robotic cleaners.

The cleanliness of workspaces and places people visit has not been a priority before the pandemic, but now cleanliness is of utmost importance and we all think about. People have learned how the external environment that surrounds us has a profound impact on our internal health. Prior to COVID-19, health was often seen as mostly individual, if you take care of your body the way you are supposed to, you have a much better chance at maintaining optimal health.

Maintaining optimal health also means we all have to take into consideration all the necessary steps. It means the environments we share have to uphold a higher standard of clean. Automated cleaning allows for both of those criteria’s to happen simultaneously, but the necessary protocols to implement it should begin now in order to minimize risk in places and spaces that are currently occupied and better prepare spaces that will soon begin to reopen.

ICE Cobotics is a leading manufacturer of autonomous floor cleaning equipment in partnership with SoftBank Robotics for Whiz, our autonomous sweeper.

We specialize in the subscription model that includes training through multiple platforms, enhanced safety features through BrainOS technology, and an expansive fleet management tracking system. We are here to help with any floor cleaning safety related questions or concerns. Please contact our Client Care Team to learn more about our services and equipment.